Friday, May 10, 2013

Sign of the times (sadly)

Gareth Bale has managed to pull off one of the most audacious moves of the week without getting his boots dirty or his hair ruffled by Sideshow Bob.
Applying for a patent for your goal celebration, one incidentally that another player currently playing in the Championship performed first, has to be the final kick into touch of the player/fan relationship.

Coming a week after it was announced that the 2012/13 football season in England will officially go down as the first one where gate receipts were finally eclipsed by income from commercial sources it really is the end of the expression 'it's the fans game'.
Presumably if another player has the temerity to copy the Bale celebration it will be a case of his people making a phone call advising that legal action will be imminent.

I'm sure I once heard that the word "Gazza" was similarly registered. Still, Paul, I suppose that if you were a mega-superstar you wouldn't want any Tom, Dick or Harry selling T-shirts with "traderbaldyk" on the front? :-)

There'll be someone, somewhere, talking about "protecting one's income stream".